Method and machinery for forming strip metal.



s. L. McCORMICK & w. F. RESE. METHOD AND MACHINERY FOR FORMING STRIP MET AL.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 8, 191?.

Patented Feb. 18

APPLICATION FILED MAYB|1 917.

Patented Feb. 18, 1919.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

INVENTOR N UE WITNESSES SAMUEL MOCOBMICK, OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, AND WELIAM F. OF WARREN, OHIO.

METHOD AND IdAGHIHERY FOB FOR MING STRIP METAL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

' Patented Feb. 18, 1919.,

Application filed Hay 8, 1917. Serial No. 167,172.

To all whom it may concern: 4

Be it known that we, SAMUEL L. McCon- MIoK, residing at Pittsburgh, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania,

and WILLIAM F. Ruse, residing at Warren, in the county of Trumbull and State of Ohio, both citizens of the United States, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvements in Methods and Machinery for Forming Strip Metal, of which improvements the following is a specification. I

Our invention relates to improvements in other metal; we have actually applied it in.

the production of steel strip, and shall describe it in that particular application. In

view of the ensuing explanation, these skilled in the production of other metals will be able to adapt our invention to their needs. 4

The machine is shown in the accompanying drawings. Figure 1 is a view of the entire machine in plan; Fi 2 is a view in vertical section, on the pine indicated by the line Il-ll, Fig. 1. in this view many of the parts appear in side elevation.

The machine includes and consists of essentially a slitter l, a rolling mil1'2, a reel 3, and shears 4. These are. arranged in alinement, in a common line of progress of the work, AB.

lhe slitter 1 shown is a rotary slitter. and includes one and preferably two cylindrical bodies, one at least of which is provided with sharp-edged collars constituting rotary knives. or cutters. These collars Wlll preterably be removable and replaceable upon the cylindrical carrier and adjustable in their actual and relative positions thereon. Slitters of this character and possessing thesefeatures are well known, and we have not therefore thought it necessary in our drawings to show detailspf the slitter in these particulars. Any slltter of any particular character or construction, adapted to the ends to be described,.will serve.

The rolling mill 2 is a mill for cold rollmg. It ordinarily will be adjusted to reduce the-thickness of the material passing through, by as much as .005 to .010 of an.

inch. It is efiective to roll and finish the strip, and to remove the bur which in the slitting operation has been developed on the edge of the strip.

The reel 3 may be of any particular form desired, but will be arranged for taking up the material directly and by continuous operation, as it passes from mill 2.

The shears 4 are arranged preferably beyond and somewhat above the level of the advance of work to the reel. This is best shown in Fig. 2. The reel and the shears are arranged and intended to be brought into service alternately: when the reel is acting the shears are idle, and, contrariwise,

when the shears are acting the reel is idle. The reel is arranged at a lower level as a matter of convenience, to the end that, when the reel is to be put out of action and the shears are to be brought into action instead, a conveyer 8 (indicated in Fig. 2 in dotted lines) may be laid, extending above the reel shears 4.

The slitter, mill, and reel are, it will be observed, mounted conveniently on a common base; they are driven from a common source of power. This source of power may be such as is convenient; here we have shown as a suitable source the electric motor 5. The slitter 1 is directly and positively driven from the source of power, and the mill 2 and the reel 3 are cared to the slitter drive, to be operated with it. These parts, slitter, mill and reel are necessarily spaced apart sufliciently to provide for such a driving arrangement, and to afibrd access to all parts of the machinervybut, otherwise, it will be observed that the parts are in immediate space relationship, so that the material passes in continuous operation through the entire succession of instrumentalities. And, furthermore, the shears, 4, though in the installation shown they are not drlven from the same source of power, and are not shown to be mounted on a oommon'base with the other parts, are, nevertheless, arranged adjacent the other parts, and immediately beyond the reel, to the end that they may receifie the material as it advances from the mi 2.

and leading directly from the mill 2 to the All these four parts, so alined, are :Eurthermore preferably so arranged and are here shown to he so arranged that they receive and deal with the material without defleeting it from the direction of its extent. As shown, the material as it is received e; tends horizontally, and in that position it remains throughout its progress through the machine.

lit remains to be noted that, in the-line of drive from the source oi power 5 to the mill 2, and also in the line of drive to thereel 3,

variable speed clutches 6, 7 are arranged, and these are provided with suitable manually operable control (not shown) to the end that the relative speeds of mill to slitter, and of reel to slitter, and of reel to mill as well, may be properly and accurately con trolled and adjusted. ltis possible, manilieve it to be best. As to the clutch 7, interposed between the source of ower and the reel 3, it may, in addition to Its capacity to efi'ect variation in speed, be capable of bemg opened entirely, to the end that the reel 3 ma be stationary while slitter and milltrave Manifestly, there is no need to have the reel turn when it is not needed, and this will be the case when the finished strip, insteadof being ted to the reel, is fed to the shears a.

lDirecting attention now to the cooperative action of slitter and rolling mill, it will be manifest that, in dealing with strip materal' of ordinary length,-the material under treatment will, durino substantially all of the, operation, be sub ected at closely adjacent points in its length and simultaneously to the action of these two machine elements; and it will be understood that by nice adust nent of relative speed, such as can be attamed by instrumentalities of the nature 1nd1cated,the material as it passes through the slitter may be held under a tension pro-- duced by the tractiveefiect-of the mill, and thus be kept taut and strai ht and tree or" the warping twistin and distortion which areiincident to the slitting of such material as it is ordinarily conducted, lit will be obtill served, furthermore, that intermediate handllng of the strip and such intermediate ooerations as arecommonly resorted topic ling, annealing, etc'.--are dispensed with. And this with considerable economic advantage. Intermediate annealing has here- But inseam toiore been considered necessary, atter slitting, and preliminarily to cold-rolling, in or-. der to take the kink out of the material, and also to accomplish the rolling away of the bur raised by the slit-tor on the edge of the strip. As we have'said, ourcoiirdination of machinery and correlation of method prevent kinking, andthe removal of the bur and the cold-rolling of the strip become possible in a single operation, continuous with the slittiuga practice not heretofore achieved.

In addition to the parts previously described, the drawings show edging rolls 9, arranged on the feed side of rolling mill 2, and between slitter and mill; these are eifective to more accurately define and determine the path of the strip. Preferably the rolls 9 are idle as shown. 'lhe drawings show also a flattening device 10, situated beyond the mill 2 and on the feed side of the shears l; such a flattening device is useiuil,

in case the finished article is to be sheared into uncoiled lengths, to cause the extended lengths to lie smooth upon the supportprovided to'receive and sustain them. I

The operation in all its parts may be more fully described in a few words. The machine, previously synchronized, is set in motion. The strip material in the roughthat is to say, somewhat oversize both in width and in thiclmess-properly annealed,

isintroduced through the shtteirv 1, and, in

continuous advance, through thd mill 2, and its forward end properly secured in reel 3. As operation progresses, relative speeds may be more minutely adjusted by the operator. As between mill and slitter the relative speeds will be such as to adord the tension desired for the ends already indicated; as between reel and mill, adjustment will of course be made as the coil of finished material heaps up on the reel. lln the slitter the material will be trimmed and separated into one or more strips of proper wdth; in the mill this slitted material will be rolled to the desired thiclmess (with corresponding entension in length) and the burs raised by the cutting edges of the slitter will be rolled out. The reel of course will take the finished strip from the ill;

instead of winding the finished strip on the reel, it may, however, be caused to ad vance upon conveyor 8 above and beyond the reel and to enter the shears, where it may its as it advances he severed into suitable lengths. Y

'llho advantages incident to and characteristic of our invention, are, of all,

manifestly, very appreciable economy in door-space; but, beyondthat, the notable ad vantage is the slit-ting and rolling of stri s in continuous operation, to other with reel ing or shearing, alternativey, as may be de sired; a incidental advantage is rolling mill arranged found in the removal of the bur from the edge of the slit strip in continuous operation with slitting.

The machine of our invention in its operation saves and dispenses with the services of several men otherwise needed. We can take a plain hot-rolled pickled strip and reduce it in thickness as much as from five 'to ten thousandths of an inch, in one and the same operation with the slitting to exact an ultimate width, and in so doing produce an article which, as well as being correct in width and thickness, is in finish equal to a full pickled and cold-rolled sheet.

We claim as our invention:

1. The step in the method of forming strip metal herein described, which consists in successively shearing the stri from a wider blank of material and rol ing the sheared strip for the removal of thebur formed during such shearing and in subjecting'the material while in the shearing operation to tension derived from the rolling operation whereby the strip is held against distortion while being sheared.

2. An improvement in the method of making strip metal which consists in subjecting a suitable blank to successive operations of slitting and of rolling it for the removal of the bur formed during the slitting operation, and .in suchtreatment holding the material at the point-of. slitting under tension due to the rolling. whereby the strip is held against distortion while being slit.

3. In machinery for forming metal strip, the combination of a slitter and a rolling mill arranged in a common line of feed, means for driving said slitter and said mill, and means efiecting variation in the speed of one of said parts with respect to the other.

4. In machineryfor forming metal strip, the combination of a rotary slitter and a in a common line of feed, a source of power, operative connection ter and means for effecting variation in relative speed between reel and 6. In machinery for forming metal strip, the combination of a rotary slitter, a rolling mill, a reel, and shears, all arranged in a common line of feed, means for driving said slitter, mill, and reel, and. means for effecting variation in relative speed between slitter and mill.

7. In machinery for forming metal strip, the combination of a rotary slitter, a rolling mill, a reel, and shears, all arranged in a common line of feed, means for driving said slitter, mill, and reel, means for efiecting variation in relative speed between slitter and mill, and means for disconnecting said reel from said driving means.

8. In machinery for forming metal strip, the combination of a slitter and a rolling mill arranged in a common line of feed, means for driving the said slitter and said mill, means for efiecting variation in the speed of one of said parts with respect to the other, and edging rolls arranged intermediate said slitter and said rolling mill.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands.

SAMUEL L. MCCORMICK. LIAM F. RESE. Witnesses:

Joan W. HUGHES, R. W. Mawnmnnr. 

